BID Program Spotlight: Social Services

The BID’s Social Services program provides important assistance to individuals who live without shelter in the Flatiron District. Through a contract with Urban Pathways, a nonprofit human services agency with 40 years of homeless outreach experience, the program dispatches an Outreach Team into the district five times a week, for a total of 35 hours. Throughout each week, team shift hours vary to cover different times of day, including overnights, to assess neighborhood needs at all hours.

Urban Pathways records all interactions with clients and produces daily and monthly reports that create a comprehensive picture of homelessness in the district. This data helps identify trends based on location, time of year, or time of day - information critical for developing an effective response.

Sheriece McKenzie, Jamaar Winborne, and Hilton Douglas make up the core of the Flatiron BID's Outreach Team. The team’s goal is to refer clients to more permanent housing solutions and help them find treatment if they have mental or physical illnesses. If a client is resistant to assistance, the team continues to communicate the client’s options and build a relationship in the hope that he or she will eventually accept placement in a shelter.

Recently, the team referred two brothers to a temporary housing facility where they will stay until a long-term placement opens up; these clients had been living without a permanent home for many years. This is just one success story of many in the district, and the BID thanks the entire Urban Pathways team for the opportunities that they give to the neighborhood’s homeless to get off the streets and into a stable living situation.